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Monday, May 15, 2017

Half a century has elapsed since Israel established its brutal
occupation of Palestine, and almost seven decades have passed since the
1948 Palestinian Nakba, which constitutes the beginning of
discrimination, dispossession and displacement for Palestinians and
their persistent suffering. Since then, the inalienable rights of the
Palestinian people have figured prominently on the United Nations (UN)
agenda. Nonetheless, the plight of the Palestinians continues.

In the light of this, Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ) has
commissioned a report – “Above the Law: Israel’s Non-Implementation of
UN Resolutions”. The report assesses Israel’s implementation of
resolutions concerning Palestine and Palestinian rights adopted by the
main UN bodies – the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human
Rights Council and ECOSOC – from 1948 to 2017. The 330 page study builds
on assessment by UN experts, governments and civil society actors, and
draws on field observations in Palestine. It focuses on six selected
thematic areas, which are periodically addressed in UN resolutions:

Palestinians’ right to self-determination

Legal, geographic and demographic status of Occupied Palestine

Palestinian refugees and displaced persons

Governance, natural resources and economy

Militarisation and military operations

Palestinians’ human rights

The main finding of the study is that Israel has blatantly disregarded
all UN resolutions criticising its illegal activities and their dire
consequences for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people since
1948. The study also finds that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is
intricately linked with its apartheid system. Israel’s distinction
between Jewish nationality and the “citizenship” or “residence” statuses
of Palestinians forms the basis for discrimination against
Palestinians. This system is also interlinked with Israel’s increasingly
anti-democratic policies and practices targeting political opponents,
including Jewish Israeli dissidents.

The right to self-determination

The report shows that the groundwork for Israel’s illegal policies and
practices characteristic of colonialism and apartheid was laid almost
seven decades ago, with the 1948 Nakba. Overriding the
partition resolution, Israel had extended its borders beyond the
UN-designated partition lines and annexed West Jerusalem, which had been
envisaged as a city under an international regime. After having imposed
its military occupation on the remaining territory of Palestine in
1967, Israel furthered administrative and legislative measures aimed at
establishing permanent control over occupied Palestine, notably through
its settlement policy. In recent years, Israel has taken actions
subverting Palestinian self-determination in retaliation for explicit
recognition of this right by the international community.

Legal, geographic and demographic status

Pursuant to its establishment in 1948, Israel was quick to develop the
legislative framework for the expropriation of Palestinian land and
property for the sake of Jewish settlement – first within Israel and
from 1967 onwards in occupied Palestine – in an effort to alter the
character, status and demography of historic Palestine illegally. On
grounds of discriminatory domestic property laws, military orders and an
apartheid zoning and planning regime, Israel has unabatedly confiscated
Palestinian land and expropriated or demolished Palestinian property
inside Israel and in occupied Palestine to construct and consolidate
illegal Jewish settlements. These measures run counter to innumerable UN
resolutions determining that Israel’s construction of settlements has
no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under
international law and a major obstacle to a just, lasting and
comprehensive peace. Rather than constituting a novel policy, Israel’s
retroactive “legalisation” of outposts hitherto considered illegal even
under Israeli law, which allow for the expropriation of private
Palestinian land, is a continuation of longstanding violations.

The settlement policy, in conjunction with the erection of physical
obstacles, undermines the contiguity of Palestine and fragments
Palestinian communities in small disconnected enclaves controlled by the
Occupying Power and surrounded by massive Israeli settlement blocs,
walls, checkpoints and vast security zones and roads for the exclusive
benefit of Israeli settlers. Appeals by the international community,
including the International Court of Justice (ICJ), dissolved into thin
air in the face of Israel’s unabashed settlement and Wall construction,
which deepened the fragmentation of Palestinian land and tore families
apart.

The report, moreover, reveals how Israeli activities since 1948 have
eroded the traditional status of Jerusalem as the centre of Palestinian
political, cultural and social life and continue to subvert the future
status of East Jerusalem as capital of a Palestinian state.

Refugees and displaced persons

Notwithstanding landmark General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 11
December 1948 and Security Council resolution 237 of 14 June 1967, as
well as innumerable related resolutions, Israel persists in its denial
of the rights of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons,
particularly their right of return. In the absence of a just solution,
many face immense suffering and deplorable conditions under occupation
and in exile marked by vulnerability, dispossession and perilous
socioeconomic situations. Israel’s population transfer and recurrent
military operations result in incessant displacement among the
Palestinian population, for which accountability and compensation remain
absent.

Governance, natural resources and the economy

A further thematic area of UN resolutions whose implementation is
assessed is Israel’s interference with or obstruction of Palestinian
governance, economy, social development and infrastructure, which
violate Palestinian political, social and economic rights.

Governance: After 1967, Israeli military forces attacked,
detained or deported Palestinian politicians and attacked or closed down
government institutions. The Oslo Accords entrenched the political
occupation because the Palestinian Authority became dependent on Israeli
funding and bound by the provisions of the agreement. Until today,
Israel continues to interfere in Palestinian governance through, inter alia,
the withholding of funds, the prevention of development projects, the
closing down of institutions and offices, the curbing of political
activity and the restriction on movement of Palestinian government
officials.

Natural resources: The discriminatory system of control over
Palestinian resources lies at the heart of Israel’s exploitation of
Palestinian natural resources for the benefit of the Israeli economy and
population, including settlers. Israel’s closure policy and movement
restrictions further obstruct Palestinians’ use of their own natural
resources.

Economy, social development and infrastructure: Israel lost no
time in gearing the Palestinian economy towards Israeli interests. Under
the 1994 Paris Protocol, Palestinian economic dependency on the
Occupying Power became entrenched. Israeli restriction on the movement
of people and goods, rigorous sanctions, the discriminatory zoning and
planning regime, military actions and the suffocating blockade on Gaza
have devastated the Palestinian economy and caused lasting socioeconomic
hardship as well as a protracted humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Militarisation and military operations

The continued refusal of Israel to apply the Fourth Geneva Convention
since 1967 created a situation in which a defenceless civilian
population faces a vast and powerful military sustained financially by
the Israeli state and supported by the Israeli government on a daily
basis. Israel persists in its prolonged military occupation and frequent
devastating operations, particularly in Gaza, marked by excessive use
of force affecting Palestinian civilians disproportionately. These cause
unquantifiable loss and suffering, further deprive the Palestinian
people of a dignified life and deepen despair.

Human rights

The widespread violations by Israel against the Palestinian people
constitute the longest outstanding, serious human rights issues on the
UN agenda. Regardless of repeated appeals by the international community
since 1967 to apply its obligations under international human rights
and humanitarian law in occupied Palestine, Israel has entrenched its
deliberate, organised and institutionalised violations of Palestinians’
human rights, which have been criticised regularly in UN resolutions:

The use of excessive and often lethal force by Israeli occupying
forces and the failure to prevent settler violence violate Palestinians’
fundamental right to life.

Israel continues to conduct large-scale arbitrary arrests and detention under untenable conditions of imprisonment and under the use of torture, to impose collective punishment,
most deplorably in the form of its blockade on the entire population of
Gaza, and to displace and deport Palestinians forcibly.

The Occupying Power arbitrarily and violently interferes with the right to property by
destroying homes and vital infrastructure on the basis of
discriminatory laws, military orders and an apartheid zoning and
planning scheme.

Severely infringing on Palestinian freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and the right to participate in public and political life, Israel, inter alia, closes down institutions, disperses peaceful protests violently and arrests human rights defenders.

Israel limits Palestinians’ right to education, inter alia,
through restrictions on school development, demolitions and closing
down of educational institutions, movement restrictions, military raids
and settler violence.

Restricting freedom of movement, Israel imposes
curfews on entire areas and has constructed and maintains the Wall, the
system of checkpoints and other physical obstacles and the associated
permit regime.

Undermining the right to residence and family life,
Israel enacts discriminatory laws governing entry and residence as well
as family reunification, and perpetuates practices that discriminate
against the Palestinian population, inter alia, the denial and revocation of residency statuses.

The Occupying Power, furthermore, violates the freedom of religion and worship,
notably through access restrictions and “archaeological excavations”
imperilling the maintenance of Holy Places. Frequent incursions,
provocations and incitement by government officials, religious leaders,
occupying forces and extremist settlers violate the historic status quo
and sanctity of Holy Sites.

Through its policies and practices, Israel deprives Palestinians of the right to an adequate standard of living.
Its actions imperil livelihoods, heighten poverty and food insecurity,
deny Palestinians social services, restrict access quality medical care
and have hurled Gaza into an entrenched humanitarian crisis.

General assessment

While Israel has continued to defy international law and human rights
law with utmost impunity throughout almost seven decades, Palestinians
see their inalienable rights disintegrate in the face of prolonged
occupation, asymmetrical warfare, power politics and political
expediency. The unrelenting efforts by several UN Member States to
introduce necessary forcible measures under UN Charter Chapter VII
through the Security Council to force Israel to comply with its
international obligations have been blocked repeatedly by the veto of
the United States.

The report concludes that the only way to end violations in the region
is to dismember the brutal system of occupation. The liberation of
Palestinians from the shackles of occupation and apartheid and the
dissolution of discrimination against ethnic and increasingly political
minorities within Israel would give way to real democracy and just peace
in the region. To finally achieve this aim, all actors who are
genuinely concerned about human rights and peace must act as a united
front to bring to an end an inhumane system that threatens the humanity
of, and justice for, all of us.